A 15-year-old Muslim girl in western India committed suicide after her family endured months of harassment from their Hindu neighbours over a property deal blocked under a law which prevents Muslims from buying property in Hindu-majority areas.
The case, which occurred in Ahmedabad last month, has sparked outrage among activists who say the law is being misused to prevent Muslims from moving into Hindu-majority neighbourhoods, thereby entrenching communal segregation in India’s most polarised state.
For the Ansari family of Gomtipur, Ahmedabad, the nightmare began when they decided to invest their savings into a home directly opposite their rented house.
In late 2024, they finalised a deal with their Hindu neighbour, paying Rs 15.5 lakh (£15,000) in full.
But before the formal handover could take place, the seller died. Her son, Dinesh, moved back into the property and refused to transfer possession, citing the Disturbed Areas Act.
The family say he was supported by local Hindutva groups determined to prevent Muslims moving into the neighbourhood.
Over the following months, the Ansaris allege they were repeatedly intimidated, threatened and even assaulted. On 7 August this year, they claim, a mob led by Dinesh entered their home, dragged teenage Saniya by the hair and beat her younger brother.
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Two days later, Saniya was found dead in her room. In a handwritten note, she named her harassers and wrote: “Because of them, there has been no joy in my house for the last 10 months, only tears and fighting.”
Her sister Rifat recalled: “She killed herself waiting for someone to save us, help us. They dragged her, humiliated us, but the police never acted.”
The teenager’s suicide note names neighbours responsible for the blocked house purchase:
“Behind my suicide are Dinesh Manav, Sarla Baya and Sona Suman. These people took our money and did not give us the house.
“Because of them there has been no happiness in my home for 10 months — only crying, fights and humiliation.
“Nobody takes action. These people should be punished for my death. Dinesh and Suman’s family is responsible. No one in the neighbourhood stood with us.”
The family’s grief has been compounded by what they describe as deliberate police negligence. Despite CCTV footage of the assault and Saniya’s suicide note, officers reportedly refused to register a case, initially describing the death as accidental.
It was only after the intervention of Ahmedabad’s police commissioner that a First Information Report (FIR) was filed, naming six individuals under charges including abetment of suicide of a minor.
Yet more than a month later, the family say no arrests have been made.
“We kept going to the police, but they told us the law is not on our side,” Rifat said. “We feel helpless and hopeless.”
The Disturbed Areas Act
The Disturbed Areas Act was first enacted in Gujarat in 1991 following communal riots. Its stated aim was to stop Muslims being forced into “distress sales” of their homes during outbreaks of violence.
Under the Act, any property transaction between Hindus and Muslims in designated “disturbed” zones requires prior approval from the district collector.
Critics argue that in practice it has become an instrument of discrimination. Entire districts of Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara remain under “disturbed” notification for decades, even in peacetime.
Permissions can take months, are often denied without explanation, and activists allege the process is riddled with corruption.
“Instead of protecting vulnerable families, the law is weaponised to deny them agency,” activist Kaleem Siddiqui told The Wire. “It tells Muslims: you may have the money, but you cannot choose where to live.”
Wider pattern
For Gujarat’s Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), the case illustrates how state policy entrenches religious segregation. “Since the BJP came into power, they wanted to distance Muslims from Hindu areas.
The Disturbed Areas Act has become a big weapon,” said MCC convener Mujahid Nafees. “It has already torn the social fabric.”
Rights groups point out that Gomtipur, where the Ansaris live, is already an overcrowded Muslim-majority neighbourhood of nearly 400,000 residents.
Infrastructure is weak, drainage is poor and schools are under-resourced.
Yet laws like the Disturbed Areas Act, they argue, prevent Muslim families from moving into better-serviced areas, trapping them in ghettos.
A local activist from Ahmedabad added: “There is a rate card for obtaining the collector’s certificate. Everyone knows it. Corruption is rampant, and Muslims are the ones who suffer most.”
The Gujarat government continues to defend the law as essential for “maintaining peace” and preventing demographic changes that could inflame tensions.
But activists counter that this justification effectively legitimises segregation, while emboldening vigilante groups to act as enforcers.
Today, the Ansari family still live in their cramped rented home, directly facing the house they paid for but were never allowed to enter.
Alongside their daughter, they have lost their savings, their dignity and their trust in the law.
“Saniya was so excited to move into the new house. She used to imagine decorating her own space,” her sister told Maktoob. “Now she is gone, and we are left with nothing but pain.”
Gujarat’s violent history
The tragedy, activists say, highlights a wider truth: in Gujarat, laws intended to protect minorities are increasingly being deployed to marginalise them further. For the Ansaris, that reality has come at the cost of their child’s life.
Gujarat has a long and bloody history of communal violence, most infamously the 2002 riots in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
The pogrom, which took place under then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, displaced tens of thousands of Muslim families, many of whom never returned to their original homes.
In the years that followed, Muslims in cities like Ahmedabad found it nearly impossible to purchase property in Hindu-majority areas.
Local Hindu groups often pressured sellers to withdraw, while the Disturbed Areas Act provided legal cover to stop such sales altogether.
As a result, Muslim-only neighbourhoods such as Juhapura on the outskirts of Ahmedabad have swelled into vast, overcrowded ghettos. Often described as a “city within a city,” Juhapura is cut off from basic civic services and public infrastructure.
Critics say the law has effectively institutionalised segregation and deepened the community’s exclusion from mainstream city life.
